Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt on Tuesday. Olmert praised Mubarak for his role in brokering the recently concluded ceasefire agreement with Hamas in Gaza, while Mubarak said his efforts to negotiate the release of kidnapped IDF soldier Gilad Shalit are continuing.
In public comments before the start of their meeting in the Sinai resort town of Sharm El-Sheikh, Prime Minister Olmert called the Israel-Egypt relationship "a strategic partnership." He also praised Mubarak's "determined leadership" and his "extraordinary efforts to bring about calm" in the region. Egypt, he said, played an important role in creating the conditions to "end the terrorism from Gaza against Israeli citizens."
For his part, Mubarak told reporters, ''We shall discuss the question of [Gilad] Shalit. We are making efforts to address this issue.''
Cpl. Gilad Shalit was taken hostage on June 25, 2006, during a raid on a western Negev IDF base near the Kerem Shalom Crossing by Palestinian Authority terrorists from Gaza. In addition to the kidnapping of Shalit, two soldiers were killed and four others were wounded.
Olmert said that, aside from the fate of the kidnapped soldier, he and Mubarak had other bilateral issues to discuss as well. In other forums, the Prime Minister has said that ending ongoing weapons smuggling from Egyptian Sinai into Gaza is key to maintaining the ceasefire with the Hamas-controlled PA.
"The two leaders will discuss the situation in Gaza.... It is a fragile situation and we want to talk about where it is going," a spokesman for the Prime Minister said.